A 17-year-old has been arrested and is being taken to be interviewed by detectives at 6 p.m. following a Wednesday morning shooting in Rancho Santa Margarita. The victim, an active Orange County Sheriff's Department volunteer reserve deputy in his 50s, remains in critical condition, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.
The victim's mother found him "basically unconscious" in a bedroom on the 21000 block of Shadow Rock Lane in east RSM around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Amormino said. The arrested teen lived in the same house with the man, as did the victim's mother, he said.
The man suffered "blunt force trauma and a possible gunshot wound to the head, according to an emergency doctor," he said.
No weapon has been recovered, the spokesman said. He said the gun used in the crime was "possibly a handgun."
California Highway Patrol spotted the teen's vehicle about 1 p.m. in East Los Angeles at the I5/Gage exit, Amormino said. He was arrested soon after, he said. The teen has not been named due to his age.
Trabuco Hills High was locked down as investigators searched for the teen earlier Wednesday.
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